Method and system for distributing product information

ABSTRACT

A method and system of associating product codes with product characteristics, and using those product codes to send and receive information about those characteristics to destinations on a network when the values of those characteristics change.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to methods and systems for distributingproduct information and, more particularly, to computer-implementedmethods, products and systems for distributing product information.

2. Description of Related Art

A manufacturer and dealer of the manufacturer's goods typically worktogether to ensure that the dealer has correct information about themanufacturer's products. For example, when a product is updated orchanged, the manufacturer often sends the product information to thedealer. This information is frequently sent in hard copy form, with apiece of paper containing either a list of the product modifications oran entirely new product specification sheet. In response, the dealerwill typically add the new information into the dealer's own advertisingliterature.

The foregoing process is fraught with inefficiency and potential forerrors. It is inefficient because personnel must first transcribe thenew product information and then integrate it into the dealer'sadvertising literature. During the transcription process, typographicalerrors may creep into the dealer's advertising literature.

Although product information may be sent in electronic form by disk oremail to facilitate the dealer's use of the information, that alone isnot enough to cure the inefficiencies associated with the foregoingprocess. While it may eliminate the need to transcribe the information,it does not eliminate the time and expense of integrating theinformation into the dealer's product literature. The inefficiency iscompounded by the fact that many dealers are all go through the sameprocess of modifying their product literature.

In addition, once the product information is electronically received bythe dealers, there is no way for the manufacturer to track whether theinformation was used, and if so how often it was used and whether it wasused correctly. Without such tracking data, manufacturers are limited intheir ability to provide accurate and efficient product information orupdates to that information.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention addresses these needs.

In one aspect, the present invention provides a method of providingproduct information that includes associating a first code with a firstcharacteristic of a product and a second code with a secondcharacteristic of the same product, storing a first characteristic valueassociated with the first characteristic and a second characteristicvalue associated with the second characteristic, associating theidentity of a first entity with at least one of the codes, changing atleast one of the characteristic values, retrieving the identity of thefirst entity based on the association with the code associated with thecharacteristic with the changed value, and sending the changed value tothe first entity.

In another aspect, a computer-implemented method of providinginformation about a product includes providing product data associatinginformation codes to information about a product, providing destinationdata correlating the information codes to entities, modifying theinformation about the product, identifying a first entity based upon theinformation code associated with the information about a product, theproduct data and the destination data, and transmitting the modifiedinformation about a product or service to the first entity.

A system is provided in a further aspect of the invention, and itincludes a server in communication with a destination computer via anetwork, data accessible by the server, the data including (a) aplurality of product codes, each code being associated with thecharacteristic of a product, (b) values representative of thecharacteristic, (c) the address of the destination computer, (c) dataassociating one or more the product codes with the address of thedestination computer, and a processor for executing instructions, theinstructions including sending a communication to the address when thevalue of a characteristic is changed and the product code associatedwith the characteristic is also associated with the address.

Another system in accordance with the invention provides means forassociating a first code with a first characteristic of a product and asecond code with a second characteristic of the same product, means forstoring a first characteristic value associated with the firstcharacteristic and a second characteristic value associated with thesecond characteristic, means for associating the identity of a firstentity with at least one of the codes, means for changing at least oneof the characteristic values, means for retrieving the identity of thefirst vendor based on the association with the code associated with thecharacteristic with the changed value, and means for sending the changedvalue to the first entity.

Yet another system provides a processor, data and instructionsexecutable by the processor, such that the instructions include:associating a first code with a first characteristic of a product and asecond code with a second characteristic of the same product; storing afirst characteristic value associated with the first characteristic anda second characteristic value associated with the second characteristic;associating the identity of a first entity with at least one of thecodes; changing at least one of the characteristic values; retrievingthe identity of the first entity based on the association with the codeassociated with the characteristic with the changed value; sending thechanged value to the first entity.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a functional diagram of a system in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a functional diagram of a system, including data structuresand exemplary data of a dealer server and manufacturer server, inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a functional diagram of the data structures and exemplary dataof a Product Information Database in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 4 is an exemplary web page created in accordance with an embodimentof the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

As shown in FIG. 1, a system 50 in accordance with one embodiment of theinvention comprises a network of computers such as end user personalcomputer 60 which communicates with web servers 70-72 via Internet 80.Although only a few computers are depicted in FIG. 1, it should beappreciated that a typical system can include a large number ofconnected computers. Preferably, end user computer 60 is a generalpurpose computer having all the internal components normally found in apersonal computer such as, for example, central processing unit (CPU)61, display 62, CD-ROM 63, hard-drive 64, mouse 65, keyboard 66,speakers 67, microphone 68, modem 69 and all of the components used forconnecting these elements to one another. End user computer 60communicates with the Internet 60 via modem 69. End user computer 60 maycomprise any work station or system capable of processing instructionsand transmitting data to and from humans and other computers, includingPDA's with modems, Internet-capable wireless phones and Internet userterminals. Although, CPU 61 is shown as a single processor, theinstructions may actually be distributed to a number of differentcomponents or processors for execution.

Web servers 70-72, including dealer servers 70, 72 and manufacturerserver 71, contain hardware for sending and receiving information overthe World Wide Web, such as web pages or files. The web servers 70-72may be typical web servers or any computer network server or otherautomated system capable of communicating with other computers over anetwork, including the Internet, wide area networks or local areanetworks. For example, the system described above in connection with enduser computer 60 may also function as a web server.

As shown in greater detail in FIG. 2, dealer server 70 contains aprocessor 75, a set of instructions 80 which are executed by processor80 and a variety of data. Preferably, the instructions 80 are stored asa program on the hard drive of the dealer server 70. The functions,methods and routines of the program are explained in more detail below.The data includes Dealer ID 76, Templates 77 and Page Data 78 and,although the data is shown separately from instructions 80, the data maybe modified by the program.

Dealer ID 76 contains data uniquely identifying a particular collectionof data stored in dealer server 70. For example, Dealer ID 76 may equalthe string “Dealer A” if the server is being used to manage informationrelating to the company known as “Dealer Company A, Inc.” If the sameserver is used to store data from multiple companies, there may be morethan one Dealer ID stored in the server (and correspondingly more thanone set of Templates 77 and Page Data 78). Moreover, even though thedata may be maintained, i.e., its value determined by, one entity, theserver itself may be operated by a different entity such as an ISP.

Page Data 78 contains, or points to, information to be displayed on aweb page. Specifically, Page Data 78 may take the form of a databasecontaining records having three fields, URL 79, Template ID 81 and PIIC82. URL field 79 corresponds with the particular web page. The TemplateID field 81 contains values which equal, or point to, one of the valuescontained in the Template ID field 85 of Template Data 77. The PIICfield 82 contains a list of the PIIC's associated with the web page.PIIC's are product information and identity codes that refer to aparticular item of information about a product or service as explainedin more detail below.

Template Data 77 contains data describing how a particular web pagelooks. For example, an on-line catalog may have a different web page forevery product, such that the pictures of the products and theirdescriptions change from page to page. However, in order to preserveconsistency within a web site, it is preferable that the different webpages have a consistent look. Thus, many of the pages may display thesame information or some types of information in the same generallocation. For example, FIG. 4 shows a web page advertising a radio. Justlike the web page shown in FIG. 4, a web page on a CD player wouldpreferably have the dealer's name centered in text at the top of thepage, followed by a picture of the CD player immediately below, followedby a description of the CD player in left-justified text.

Each template in Template Data 77 has both a Template ID 85 whichidentifies the template (such as “T1” or “T2 ”) and a Template Document86 containing the information to be displayed on a web page other thanthe information specific to the product. A Template Document for the webpage shown in FIG. 4 may accordingly take the following form:

<html> <head> <title>Dealer Company A, Inc.</title> </head> <body><center>Dealer Company A</center> <center>This product is availabletoday!</center> <MANUFACTURER INFORMATION> </body> </html>

The string “<MANUFACTURER INFORMATION>” corresponds with the informationthat changes based on the product being displayed.

Dealer server 72, if operated by a separate company, would have its ownset of data including its own Dealer ID such as “Dealer B Corporation.”The PIIC's stored in dealer server 72 may overlap with the PIIC's storedin dealer server 70.

Manufacturer server 71 includes a processor 83, a set of instructions 84which are executed by processor 83 and a Product Information Database300. As with the instructions 80 of dealer server 70, instructions 84are preferably stored as a program on the hard drive of the manufacturerserver 71. The functions, methods and routines of the instruction 84 areexplained in more detail below.

FIG. 3 illustrates the Product Information Database 300 in more detail.The Product Information Database 300 has three tables, including DealerTable 310, Product Table 320 and Dealer-Product Authorization Table 330.These tables represent just one way that PIIC's may be associated withproduct characteristics and destinations. Dealer Table 310 contains alist of records having two fields, Dealer ID 311 and Dealer Address 312.The values contained in Dealer ID field 311 correspond with the DealerID 76 values of the various dealer servers, such as Dealer Server 70.The Dealer Address field 312 contains the electronic address of therespective dealer and, more particularly, states where productinformation is to be sent to the dealer. In a typical circumstance, thataddress is an IP Address such as a URL that points to Dealer Server 70.By way of example, the record corresponding with Dealer Company A, Inc.would have Dealer ID and Dealer Address values of “Dealer A” and“DealerCompanyA.com/ResponseInfo”, respectively.

Product Table 320 contains records describing the characteristics of aproduct. Each individual item of product information has a ProductInformation and Identification Code (PIIC) 321 assigned to it. Forexample, one item of information may be how the product looks. For eachPIIC, there is also a Content Item 322 associated with it. Thus, apicture of a radio may be stored in Product Table 320 by placing arecord in the table whereby the PIIC 321 is “R100-picture” and theContent Item 322 is a bit-mapped file containing a picture of the unit.The radio's specifications may be stored in Product Table 320 as arecord whereby PIIC 321 is “R100-specifications” and the Content Item322 is a text document listing the specifications. Preferably, for thereasons explained below, the data is stored in HTML format.

Not every dealer will need, or be authorized to, access every feature ofevery product stored in Product Table 320. For example, some dealers maynot sell certain products and, therefore, do not need to obtaininformation about that product. Similarly, a dealer may not need toobtain all of the product information stored in Product Table 320 evenif the dealer sells that product. For example, some dealers may not sellthe product directly, but rather, simply advertise the product to thepublic on behalf of others. Such dealers would not need to know thewholesale price of the product. Also, a manufacturer may have atwo-tiered pricing approach to its products whereby dealers in one grouppay a different price then dealers in another group. The manufacturermay store both prices in Product Table 320, with separate PIIC's, butmay want to prevent dealers from the first group from learning theprices intended for dealers in the other group, and vice versa.

Dealer-Product Authorization Table 330 contains values indicatingwhether or not a particular dealer is entitled to obtain a particularitem of product information. If a dealer is authorized to obtain aparticular item of information about a product, then Dealer-ProductAuthorization Table 330 will contain a record specifying the dealer'sDealer ID and the item's PIIC. Otherwise, if there is no suchauthorization, then there will be no such record.

The data structures described herein, such as Page Data 78 and ProductInformation Database 300, are exemplary only. Other data structures,such as different fields and tables or completely different methods ofstoring information such as XML or the like, may also be used instead.

In one possible operation of the present invention, user 60 requests aweb page by transmitting a a request for product information to dealerserver 70 via Internet 80. Such a request may take the form of a URL,which URL may have been provided by the user clicking on a hot-link thatcaused the user to jump to a page containing a picture and descriptionof a product. For illustration purposes, the user shall be assumed to beinterested in information about a radio offered by the manufacturermaintaining the information contained in manufacturer server 71. Theexemplary radio shall be hereafter referred to as the “R100 Radio” andthe URL of the web page shall be considered to be“DealerCompanyA.com/R100/description.html”.

Upon receipt of the URL and in accordance with instructions 80,processor 75 in dealer server 70 searches Page Data 78 for a recordassociated with the URL. Once a match is found, the processor extractsthe PIIC's 82 from the record. For example, the PIIC's 82 associatedwith the foregoing URL may include the strings “R100-picture”,“R100-specifications” and “R100-wholesaleprice” if the web page isintended to show the user 60 a picture, description and wholesale priceof the R100 Radio.

Dealer server 70 transmits its Dealer ID 76 and the PIIC's 82 from PageData 78 to manufacturer server 71 via Internet 80. Based on the DealerID and in accordance with instructions 84, processor 83 of manufacturerserver 71 queries the Dealer-Product Authorization Table 330 to obtain alist of those PIIC's that the particular dealer both requested and isauthorized to receive. Using the foregoing example, dealer server 75will send the message “Dealer A; R100-picture, R100-specifications,R100-wholesaleprice” to manufacturer server 71 when user 60 requestsinformation associated with the aforementioned URL. In response, themanufacture server 71 queries the Dealer-Product Authorization Table 330to get a list of all records which contain “Dealer A” in the Dealer IDfield 332 and any one of the requested PIIC's in the PIIC field 331. Inthis example, there is a record containing “Dealer A” and “R100-picture”and a record containing “Dealer A” and “R100-specifications” but norecord containing “Dealer A” and “R100-wholesaleprice.” Thus, the listof requested and authorized PIIC's is limited to “R100-picture” and“R100-specifications”. Optionally, for increased security, dealer server70 may have also transmitted a password to verify the authenticity ofthe request.

Although the dealer in the example is not informed that it was notentitled to wholesale price of the product, the dealer may check to seewhether it received all of the product information that it requested.Alternatively, the manufacturer may send an error message wheneverunauthorized PIIC's are requested.

Based on the list of requested and authorized PIIC's, manufacturerserver 71 queries Product Table 320 to obtain a list of recordscontaining the actual product information. Processor 83 pulls thoserecords from the Product Table and extracts the information associatedwith the individual PIIC's, such as text, pictures or any otherinformation stored in Content Item field 322. Using the foregoingexample again, the processor will pull a bit-mapped picture of the R100radio and a textual description of its features.

Based on the pulled content, processor 83 then creates a portion of aweb page that contains the requested product information. The web pageportion is a HTML-compliant document that contains both the requestedinformation and instructions on how to display the information on theweb page. By way of the foregoing example, in response to the requestfrom Dealer Company A for a picture and specifications regarding theR100 Radio, manufacturer server creates a portion of a web page thatcontains both the picture and text and directs their placement on thepage. For ease of reference, this information shall be referred to asthe Authorized Product Data. Thus, processor 83 creates the AuthorizedProduct Data for the R100 Radio by concatenating the data contained inthe Content Item field 322 of the applicable records:

<center><IMG SRC = “Radio.bmp”></center> <P> </P> <P>class: radio </P><P>name: PowerRadio</P> <P>stereo: Yes</P> <P>power: AC; 4 CBatteries</P> <P>tuning: Manual</P> <P>size: 6″ × 7″ × 3″</P> <P>weight:3 lbs</P> <P>colors: black, silver, red</P> <P>other: waterresistant</P>

The Authorized Product Data containing the product information is thensent from manufacturer server 71 back to the dealer server 75 using thepre-stored address of the dealer. Specifically, processor 83 uses thesupplied Dealer ID to query Dealer Table 310 and obtain the electronicaddress of the dealer from Dealer Address field 312. The dealer'srequest is appended to the beginning of the HTML document (so the dealercan match the response to the original request) and the entire documentis then sent to the dealer. Using the above example, the foregoing HTMLdocument with the appended information would be sent to“DealerCompanyA.com/ResponseInfo”, i.e., address designated by DealerCompany A for receiving information from manufacturer server 71.

Once the requested information is received at the dealer's designatedaddress, dealer server 70 matches the response to the request andinserts the HTML-document into a web page to be sent to the user. First,processor 84 of dealer server 70 checks the beginning of the informationto match it to the pending request and then removes that portion fromthe Authorized Product Data. Second, the program retrieves the TemplateID 81 from Page Data 78 and uses that Template ID to retrieve thecorresponding Template Document 86 from Template Data 77. The portion ofthe Template Document 86 that corresponds with information retrievedfrom the manufacturer is then deleted and replaced with the HTMLdocument sent from manufacturer server 71. This modified document, whichnow includes information that was stored at both the dealer server andthe manufacturer server, is then sent to the user 60 via the Internet80.

By way of the continuing example, the foregoing HTML string wouldreplace the “<MANUFACTURER INFORMATION>” portion of the TemplateDocument so that user 60 would receive the following HTML document:

<html> <head> <title>Dealer Company A, Inc.</title> </head> <body><center>Dealer Company A</center> <center>This product is availabletoday!</center> <center><IMG SRC = “Radio.bmp”></center> <P> </P><P>class: radio </P> <P>name: PowerRadio</P> <P>stereo: Yes</P><P>power: AC; 4 C Batteries</P> <P>tuning: Manual</P> <P>size: 6″ × 7″ ×3″</P> <P>weight: 3 lbs</P> <P>colors: black, silver, red</P> <P>other:water resistant</P> </body> </html>FIG. 4 illustrates what such a page may look like. Portion 401 relatesto information kept at the dealer server 75 and portion 402 relates toinformation kept at manufacturer server 71.

In another embodiment, the requested information is not preformatted inHTML. Rather, the dealer is provided with the choice of how, if at all,to use and display the information. Preferably, such data is sent inaccordance with the requirements of Extensible Markup Language (XML) orsome similar syntax. An advantage of using XML is that the syntax of thesystem can be updated merely by periodically sending XML templates tothe entities that use the information. For instance, the AuthorizedPatent Data may be sent in XML format as follows:

<R100-picture> Radio.bmp </R100-picture> <R100-specifications> class:radio name: PowerRadio stereo: Yes power: AC; 4 C Batteries tuning:Manual size: 6″ × 7″ × 3″ weight: 3 lbs colors: black, silver, redother: water resistant </R100-specifications>Each individual item of product information is placed between tagscorresponding with the PIIC of the information. Using an XML reader, thedealer server extracts the information and places it in the appropriatetemplate document in the appropriate spot. For example, instead ofhaving a single area in the template document identified as“<MANUFACTURER INFORMATION>”, there may be two separate areas forsubstitution such as “<MANUFACTURER INFORMATION PIIC=R100-picture>” and“<MANUFACTURER INFORMATION PIIC=R100-specifications>”.

The operation would be substantially identical when a user requestssimilar information from dealer server 72, except that the dealer wouldconvert the data from XML to HTML.

In yet another embodiment, whenever product information is updated (suchas by a user at a terminal with access to the data or by a computer inresponse to an event), that updated information is sent to those dealersthat are authorized to receive such information. Specifically, productinformation which is provided to dealers is stored in Product Table 320such that every item of information is associated with a particularPIIC. Moreover, the Dealer-Product Authorization Table 330 preferablyincludes an Updates field 333, which contains a Boolean value statingwhether or not the dealer is automatically informed of updates to theitem of information.

Whenever the content in Product Table 320 is modified (e.g.,supplemented, deleted, changed, etc.), processor 83 of manufacturerserver 71 creates an XML document such that the document's tags relateto the PIIC and the value between the tags relates to the modifiedinformation. The processor then queries Dealer-Product AuthorizationTable 330 for all records whereby the value in the PIIC Field 331matches the value contained in the PIIC Field 321 of the modifiedproduct information in Product Table 320, and whereby the value of theUpdates field is True. Based on the Dealer ID's contained in this listof records, the Dealer Addresses 312 are extracted from Dealer Table310. The XML document containing the updates is then electronicallydistributed, such as by email, to all of the addresses in the list. Thusthe Dealer Addresses 312 also function as a list of destinations forupdated product information. The dealer can then use this information asit deems fit, including distributing it to other marketingrepresentatives. For example, if the picture of the R100 Radio wereupdated, the following XML document would be sent to every dealerauthorized to access, and automatically get updates to, a picture of theproduct: “<R100-picture>Radio 2.bmp</R100-picture>”. Because updates caninclude additions, modifications and deletions, the invention provides apowerful tool for getting new product information to those interested init.

The present invention provides numerous advantages. First, it maximizesefficiency because a single change to a product description by themanufacturer will be immediately available any time a dealer needs toobtain the information for themselves or pass it along to a consumer.Indeed, it fosters accuracy because there is no need to transcribe thenew product information. It further promotes the efficient use ofstorage space, because all of the product information is centrallylocated rather than being redundantly stored on dealer's servers. Thus,as shown in FIG. 1, a single manufacturer server 71 can provide the samedata to multiple dealer servers 70, 72.

Moreover, the manufacturer can not only insure that its dealers aredistributing up-to-date and accurate information, but also track who isdistributing it and how often. This information can be helpful to themanufacturer. For example, the manufacturer may learn that one dealer'scustomers do more investigation before buying a product than anotherdealer. With this information, the manufacturer may tailor its marketingto that dealer's customers, such as adding comparative advertising.

Preferably, the dealer will send the manufacturer marketing informationabout the users that requested the product information. An advantage ofthe present invention is that the PIIC provides a convenient mechanismfor this exchange of information. The dealer server 75 keeps a list ofthe users that accessed the information and periodically sends, brokendown by PIIC, information about the users. Alternatively, the dealerserver 75 may automatically send the user's internet address when itrequests the information associated with the PIIC's.

Thus, the PIIC may also be used as a metric for tracking how theinformation associated with the PIIC is used, accessed, frequented orthe like. Desirably, this information would include whether or not theuser purchased the product after viewing the product specifications.This sort of information would be very helpful in determining howeffective the individual PIIC items are at encouraging product sales.

In addition, if the manufacturer has information about the user, such asthe user's demographic or prior purchase information, that informationmay be used to customize the Authorized Product Data.

An additional advantage is the fact that the manufacturer can send theproduct information to an address different from the address of therequester. For example, because some PIIC's may relate to very sensitiveinformation, the product information is only sent to addresses containedin Dealer Address field 312 regardless of where the request came from.Alternatively, the databases may be modified so a dealer may specifydifferent addresses for different PIIC's, or multiple addresses for thesame PIIC. Yet further, some PIIC's may be tagged as being freelydistributable to any requester.

Still another advantage is the fact that the entire process is seamlessto the end user. All of the foregoing advantages occur without theknowledge of the user, thus preserving the relationship often developedbetween a user and particular dealer. At the same time, if the user issimply looking for the best deal for a particular product offered by aparticular manufacturer, then the manufacturer can insure that the useris getting consistent information about its products regardless of thedealer.

Another advantage of the present invention is its flexibility. Theforegoing embodiments are merely illustrative of one manner in which theinvention may be implemented.

By using HTML, the advantage of the present invention is that themanufacturer has the ability to control how its product are displayedand perceived. For example, many manufacturers have brandingrequirements, whereby the manufacturer's trademark must be displayed ina certain format and distance from other items of information. Byproviding HTML documents in response to dealer requests, themanufacturer has a greater degree of control over such issues.

However, the granularity of the information can be readily changed.Rather than sending all of the product information together in one largestring, the information may also be broken down into more discretepieces of an XML document such as:

<class>radio</class> <name>PowerRadio</name> <stereo>Yes</stereo><power>AC; 4 C Batteries</power> <tuning>Manual</tuning><height>6″</height> <width>7″</width> <depth>3″</depth> <weight>3lbs</weight> <colors>black, silver, red <other>water resistant</other>One advantage of increasing the level of detail associated with PIIC'sis that the automatic notification process immediately draws thedealer's attention to the relevant change during the automaticnotification process. Another advantage is that it provides moreinformation when tracking sales.

At the other end of the spectrum, providing an HTML document gives themanufacturer more control and the dealer may easily implement theinvention by providing a frame in a browser for displaying the HTMLdocument rather than using a Template Document.

Thus, the present invention allows a wide spectrum of control over howthe information may be displayed. On the one hand, the manufacturer maycontrol what information is displayed and how it looks by sending theinformation in an HTML-document, complete with formatting, with theintention that the document be displayed in a frame. On the other hand,the manufacturer may choose to allow the dealer to decide how to displaythe information by sending an XML document.

Moreover, although the present invention is particularly advantageousfor use by entities in a provider/distributor relationship such asdealers and manufacturers, it may be used in other sorts of business,legal and technical relationships. Similarly, although the embodimentshave primarily addressed information about products, the invention hasequal applicability to services.

Unless stated to the contrary, any use of the words such as “including,” “containing, ” “comprising” and the like, means “including withoutlimitation” and shall not be construed to limit any general statementthat it follows to the specific or similar items or matters immediatelyfollowing it. Any use of the world “plurality” means at least two of thereferenced thing. All company and product names, as well as URLaddresses, are intended to be fictitious and used herein for purposes ofexample only. Any relationship to any existing company name, productname or URL (past or future) is coincidental and not intended.

Most of the foregoing alternative embodiments are not mutuallyexclusive, but may be implemented in various combinations to achieveunique advantages. As these and other variations and combinations of thefeatures discussed above can be utilized without departing from theinvention as defined by the claims, the foregoing description of theembodiments should be taken by way of illustration rather than by way oflimitation of the invention as defined by the claims.

1. A computer program product embodied on one or more computer-readablemedia having instructions executable by a processor for performing amethod of providing product information comprising: associating a firstcode with a first characteristic of a product and a second code with asecond characteristic of the same product, storing a firstcharacteristic value associated with the first characteristic and asecond characteristic value associated with the second characteristic,associating an identity of a first entity with at least one of the firstor second codes including setting one or more distinct update valuesindicating whether the first entity is authorized to receive changesrelating to the first or second characteristic values associated withthe first or second code, changing at least one of the characteristicvalues to produce a changed characteristic value, retrieving theidentity of the first entity based on the changed characteristic value,determining whether the first entity is authorized to be sent thechanged characteristic value based on one of the one or more distinctupdate values, and sending the changed characteristic value to the firstentity based on the determination.
 2. The computer program product ofclaim 1 further including associating the identity of a second entitywith the same code as that associated with the first entity, retrievingthe identity of the second entity based on the changed value and anotherof the one or more update values, and sending the changed value to thesecond entity.
 3. The computer program product of claim 1 whereinsending the changed characteristic value comprises sending the changedcharacteristic value by email.
 4. The computer program product of claim3 wherein retrieving the identity of the first entity includesretrieving an electronic address of the first entity.
 5. The computerprogram product of claim 1 wherein the distinct update values comprise aBoolean value indicating whether the first entity is automaticallyauthorized to receive changes relating to the first or secondcharacteristic values.
 6. A computer-implemented method of providinginformation about a product comprising: providing product dataassociating information codes to information about a product, providingdestination data correlating the information codes to entities, storingan entity-data association, modifying the information about the product,identifying a first entity based upon the modified product informationand the information code associated with the product, the product data,and the destination data, determining whether the first entity isauthorized to be sent the modified product information based on theentity-data association and a distinct update value that indicateswhether the first entity should be sent the modified information, andtransmitting the modified information about the product to the firstentity only if the first entity is determined to be authorized to besent the modified information.
 7. The method of claim 6 wherein themodified product information is transmitted over a network and the firstentity is a computer on the network.
 8. The method of claim 7 whereinthe network is the Internet.
 9. The methods of claims 1 or 6 wherein theproduct is a service.
 10. The method of claim 6 wherein the distinctupdate value comprise a Boolean value that indicates whether the firstentity should be sent the modified information.
 11. A system ofproviding product information comprising: means for associating a firstcode with a first characteristic of a product and a second code with asecond characteristic of the same product, means for storing a firstcharacteristic value associated with the first characteristic and asecond characteristic value associated with the second characteristic,means for associating the identity of a first vendor with at least oneof the first or second codes including setting one or more distinctupdate values that provide an indication of whether the first vendor isauthorized to automatically receive changes to the first or secondcharacteristic values, means for changing at least one of the first orsecond characteristic values, means for retrieving the identity of thefirst vendor based on the changed characteristic value, means fordetermining whether the first entity is authorized to be automaticallysent changes to either the first or second characteristic values basedon one of the one or more distinct update values, and means for sendingthe changed characteristic value to the first vendor in response to thedetermination.
 12. The system of claim 11 wherein the means for sendingthe changed value comprises means for sending the value by email.
 13. Asystem for providing product information comprising: a processor, dataand instructions executable by the processor, the instructionsincluding: associating a first code with a first characteristic of aproduct and a second code with a second characteristic of the sameproduct; storing a first characteristic value associated with the firstcharacteristic and a second characteristic value associated with thesecond characteristic; associating an identity of a first entity with atleast one of the codes including storing one or more distinct updatevalues indicating whether the first entity is authorized toautomatically receive updates to a characteristic associated with acode; changing at least one of the characteristic values; retrieving theidentity of the first entity based on the changed characteristic value;determining whether the first entity is authorized to be automaticallysent changes to the at least one characteristic value based on one ofthe one or more distinct update values; and sending the changedcharacteristic value to the first entity based on the determination. 14.The system of claim 13 wherein the system comprises a server connectedto a network and the first entity comprises another server on thenetwork.
 15. The system of claim 13 wherein the system comprises aserver connected to a network, the first and second characteristicvalues are maintained by a seller, and the first entity is a buyer ofthe product from the seller.
 16. The system of claims 11 or 13 whereinthe product is a service.